a brilliant victory sent
by Zeki Tumal to the khalifa. Internal strife prevented the new negus
of Abyssinia from prosecuting the war, which thus, in spite of the
Abyssinian success, resulted in the increased prestige of the khalifa.
From this time, however, the dervishes ceased to trouble the
Abyssinians.

_Darfur and Kordofan._--On the outbreak of the mahdi's rebellion
Slatin Bey was governor of the province, and when Madibbo, the
insurgent sheikh of Rizighat, attacked and occupied Shakka and was
following up his success, Slatin twice severely defeated him, and,
having concentrated his forces at El Fasher, repulsed the enemy again
at Om Shanga. Mahdism, however, spread over Darfur in spite of
Slatin's efforts to stay it. He fought no fewer than twenty-seven
actions in various parts of his province, but his own troops, in
course of time, became infected with the new faith and deserted him.
He was obliged to surrender at Dara in December 1883, and was a
prisoner, first at Obeid and then at Omdurman, until he escaped in
1895. In January 1884 Zogal, the new dervish amir of the province,
attacked El Fasher, where Said Bey Guma and an Egyptian garrison 1000
strong with 10 guns was still holding out, and captured it. He also
reduced the Jebel Marra district, where the loyal hill-people gave him
some trouble.

After the death of the mahdi in 1885, Madibbo revolted against the
khalifa, but was defeated by Karamalla, the dervish amir of the
Bahr-el-Ghazal, and was caught and executed. A war then sprang up
between Karamalla and Sultan Yusef, who had succeeded Zogal as amir of
Darfur. Yusef was joined in 1887 by Sultan Zayid, the black ruler of
Jebel Marra, and Karamalla's trusted general, Ketenbur, was defeated
with great slaughter at El Towaish on the 29th of June 1887. Osman wad
Adam (Ganu), amir of Kordofan, was sent by the khalifa to Karamalla's
assistance. He forced back the Darfurians near Dara on the 26th of
December, routed Zayid in a second battle, entered El Fasher, and, in
1888, became complete master of the situation, the two sultans being
killed. The Darfurian chiefs then allied themselves with Abu Gemaiza,
sheikh of the Masalit Arabs, who had proclaimed himself "Khalifa
Osman," and was known as the anti-mahdi. The revolt assumed large
proportions, and became the more dangerous to Abdullah, the khalifa,
by reason of its religious character,